I was at an SAUSD school board forum last week and was shocked when some of the boorish radicals in the audience booed when they heard that I got a contribution from the Santa Ana Police Officers Association. Most folks in Santa Ana don’t hate the police. But a small, very vocal minority does. And they are backing a slate of candidates that we need to steer clear of.

I attended two Santa Ana City Council candidate forums recently and was astonished to hear every single candidate for the Santa Ana City Council come out publicly against Measure X. Sal Tinajero, who is termed out and is running for Mayor of Santa Ana, is the only candidate still publicly backing Measure X (although he doesn’t mention it on his campaign website).

It is generally a very bad idea for a political candidate to run on a platform based in raising our taxes. Perhaps this is why Tinajero’s City Council candidates – Roman Reyna in Ward 4; Sandra Pocha Pena Sarmiento in Ward 2; and Nelida Mendoza in Ward 6 have all publicly turned their backs on Tinajero’s Measure X.

Measure X, if it passes, will result in Santa Ana having the highest sales tax in Orange County. That will result in several awful consequences: Continue reading→

A civil war has broken out in Santa Ana’s Artists Village and it all started with a comment posted by Sandra “Pocha” Peña Sarmiento (yes she has a lot of names) over at the OC Weekly, under the pen name “Pocharte.” Here is the now infamous comment:

This is truly a sad development. Matt’s gallery was a much loved gathering place and his murals were beautiful expressions of our local artists’ vision. Now all this has gone the way of the gorgeous Caio Trattoria murals created by dozens of Artists Village tenants in the ’90’s & painted over by Chapter One when they moved in. All these exquisite moments are lost to us now…like tears in rain. Continue reading→